|
Room 229
Tel: +44
(0)20 7679 8781 |
Dr David W Lawson
Leverhulme Early Career Research Fellow (2010-2013)
PhD Anthropology, UCL
MSc Evolutionary Psychology, University of Liverpool
BSc Biological Science, UCL
Research:
My research focuses on human family structure and its relationship to multiple dimensions of child and adult wellbeing e.g. mortality, growth, educational attainment, mental health, wealth, reproductive success. As an evolutionary anthropologist, I am interested in evaluating adaptive accounts of human behavioural variation, particularly with regard to applications of life history and parental investment theory. In recent years, I have also developed broader interests in population health and international development, particularly in sub-Saharan Africa.
Since September 2010 I have been working on a Leverhulme Trust funded fellowship entitled ‘The Evolutionary Demography of Human Family Size’. For examples of this research see: Lawson, Alvergne & Gibson (2012) and Goodman, Koupil & Lawson (2012). I am also working with Mhairi Gibson (University of Bristol) on a new co-edited book ‘Applied Evolutionary Anthropology: Darwinian Approaches to Contemporary World Issues’.
In September 2013 I will leave UCL Anthropology to take up a new 3-year Medical Research Council funded fellowship at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine. This project will consider relationships between family structure, alternative rural livelihoods and child wellbeing in an ethnically diverse field site spanning multiple villages across northern and central regions of Tanzania.
Funding and Awards:
Medical
Research Council Population Health Scientist Fellowship (2013-2016, LSHTM)
New Investigator
Award, European Human Behaviour and Evolution Association (2013)
Leverhulme
Trust Early Career Fellowship (2010-2013, UCL)
Economic
& Social Research Council Post-Doctoral Fellowship (2009-2010, LSHTM)
Economic
& Social Research Council PhD Studentship (2005-2009, UCL)
Parkes
Foundation Small Grant (2005, UCL).
Conducting surveys with male respondents in rural
Gambia, 2010.
Research Publications:
| In press | Lawson, D.W. & Uggla, C. Family structure and health in the developing world: what can evolutionary anthropology contribute to population health science? In Gibson M.A. & Lawson, D.W. (Eds) Applied Evolutionary Anthropology: Darwinian Perspectives on Contemporary World Issues |
|
2013 |
Nettle, D., Gibson, M., Lawson, D.W. & Sear, R. Human Behavioral Ecology: current research and future prospects. Behavioral Ecology. |
| 2013 | Nettle, D., Gibson, M., Lawson, D.W. & Sear, R. How much you need to engage with mechanism depends on what you are trying to do: A response to commentaries on ‘Human Behavioral Ecology: current research and future prospects’. Behavioral Ecology. |
|
2013 |
Alvergne, A., Lawson, D.W., Clarke, P.M.R., Gurmu, E. & Mace, R. Fertility, parental investment, and the early adoption of modern contraception in rural Ethiopia. American Journal of Human Biology. 25:107-15. |
|
2012 |
Lawson, D.W., Alvergne, A. & Gibson, M.A. The life-history trade-off between fertility and child survival. Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences 279: 4755-4764 |
| 2012 | Goodman, A., Koupil, I. & Lawson D.W. Low fertility increases descendant socioeconomic position but reduces long-term fitness in a modern post-industrial society. Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences 279: 4342-4351 |
| 2011 | Lawson, D.W. & Mace R. Parental investment and the optimization of human family size. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences 366, 333-343. |
| 2011 | Lawson, D.W. Life history theory and human reproductive behaviour. In Swami, V. (Ed) Evolutionary Psychology: A Critical Introduction pp. 183-214. BPS: Blackwell. |
| 2011 | Gibson, M.A. & Lawson, D.W. ‘Modernization’ increases parental investment and sibling resource competition: evidence from a rural development initiative in Ethiopia. Evolution & Human Behavior 32, 97-105 |
| 2010 | Lawson, D.W. & Mace, R. Siblings and childhood mental health: evidence for a later-born advantage. Social Science and Medicine 70, 2061-2069. |
| 2010 | Lawson, D.W. & Mace, R. Optimizing modern family size: trade-offs between fertility and the economic costs of reproduction. Human Nature 21, 39-61. |
| 2009 | Lawson, D.W. & Mace, R. Trade-offs in modern parenting: a longitudinal study of sibling competition for parental care. Evolution & Human Behavior 30, 170-183. |
|
2008 |
Lawson, D.W. & Mace, R. Sibling configuration and childhood growth in contemporary British families. International Journal of Epidemiology 37, 1408-1421. |
| 2008 | Lawson, D.W., Jordan, F.M. & Magid, K. On sex and suicide bombing: an evaluation of Kanazawa’s ‘Evolutionary Psychological Imagination’. Journal of Evolutionary Psychology 6, 73-84. |
| 2007 | Scott, B.E., Lawson, D.W. & Curtis, V. Hard to handle: understanding mother’s handwashing behaviour in Ghana. Health Policy & Planning 22 216-224. |
| 2007 | Sear, R., Lawson, D.W. & Dickins, T. Synthesis in the human evolutionary behavioural sciences. Journal of Evolutionary Psychology 5 3-28. |
Forthcoming Book:
| 2013 | Gibson M.A. & Lawson D.W. (Editors) Applied Evolutionary Anthropology: Darwinian Perspectives on Contemporary World Issues. Published by Springer, as part of a new EHBEA book series. |
Manuscripts in Preparation
| In prep | Sear, R. Lawson, D.W., Nuñez de la Mora, A., Cooper, G. Moore, S., & Fulford, T. Does testosterone correlate with marital and parental status in a polygynous, high fertility population? A test in Gambian men. |
| In prep | Pound, N., Lawson D.W., Penton-Voak, I., Toma, A.M & Richmond, R. Facial asymmetry and childhood health in contemporary British teenagers. |
Book Reviews:
| 2011 | Lawson, D.W., A review of ‘Animal homosexuality: a biosocial approach’ by A. Poiani. Animal Behaviour 81, 499. |
| 2007 | Lawson, D.W. Frustrated felines and excited ungulates: a review of ‘Homosexual behaviour in animals – an evolutionary perspective’ Edited by V. Sommer and P. Vasey. Journal of Evolutionary Psychology 5, 257-260. |
Professional Engagement:
| 2011-present | Committee Member of the Biosocial Society |
| 2011 | Co-organiser (with Mhairi Gibson) of the workshop ‘Applied Evolutionary Anthropology: Darwinian Approaches to Contemporary World Issues’. Sept 2011. University of Bristol, UK |
| 2008-2011 | Co-founder, Steering Committee Member and Secretary of the European Human Behaviour and Evolution Association |
| 2007-2011 | Book Reviews Editor: Journal of Evolutionary Psychology. |
| 2007 | Co-organiser of the European Human Behaviour & Evolution Conference. March 2007. London School of Economics, London, UK. |
Reviewing for Journals:
Annals of Human Biology, American Journal of Human Biology, Behavioural Ecology, Behavioural Ecology and Sociobiology; Biology Letters, Current Anthropology, Evolution and Human Behaviour, Ethology, European Sociological Review, Human Nature, Journal of Biosocial Science, Journal of Ethology, Journal of Evolutionary Psychology, Journal of Marriage and the Family, PloS ONE, Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences, Public Health, Social Science and Medicine
Reviewing for Publishers:
Wiley-Blackwell
